“Children Of Men” offers the most plausible dystopian future that I have ever seen in a movie and it has only become increasing plausible in the years since its release, given the large-scale migration and terrorism that has plagued Europe in recent years. However, I was unhappy with many elements of this film.

In 2027, women have been inexplicably infertile for 18 years, most of the world has collapsed and only Britain remains with all immigrants being rounded up in detention centres and refugee camps. Theo Faron (Clive Owen “Inside Man”) is a former-activist that is recruited to help escort a young girl (Clare-Hope Ashitey) to safety but it turns out she might just have the one thing that can help salvage humanity.

The characters in this movie are very, very bland. I thought that the Theo character was not remotely interesting and Clive Owen looked bored. The young girl was also rather dull. There are some big names in this movie such as Julianne Moore (“Hannibal”) and Michael Caine (“Batman Begins”) but none of them give good performances. The weak characters really hinder a movie like this because it makes it hard for you to ever really engage with the movie.

There are some interesting ideas including ones about authoritarianism and some stylish scenes such as the battle in the refugee camp but for the most part, the main characters just seem to drift through the movie. You feel more like you are on a sightseeing tour bus than you are watching a movie because it feels like minimum effort was placed into writing the story and characters. It’s a real shame that this film just doesn’t work because a lot of effort has clearly been put into building this disturbing future. Most people seem to like “Children Of Men” so maybe it’s just me not getting something.